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Elegance, seduction, class, and personality—the Ferrari® brand epitomizes Italy and its unique style that’s admired throughout the world. In Maranello, Italy, the hometown of Ferrari, people also identify the Ferrari brand with additional qualities: ingenuity, precision, design excellence, craftsmanship, quality, speed, dedication, and the love of beauty. These qualities also form the basis of most 3D artists’ love for their work and are at the core of the Autodesk Media and Entertainment mission to provide superior creative tools that free your creative genius. Tools such as Autodesk® 3ds Max® software.

For most of Ferrari’s history, the cars they have produced at their factory in Maranello have been crafted by hand. From the most experienced engineer to the youngest intern, all Ferrari employees are united by the love of their job and their pride in building sensational sports cars. When people buy luxury cars, it is often to fulfill their wish to possess a status symbol. But sit in any Ferrari for a moment, and you’ll realize the accuracy and beauty of workmanship in every small detail.

It is craftsmanship, love of details, and dedication to innovative design that led four University of Florence architecture students to come up with a rather wild and ambitious idea for their Masters dissertation—designing a new concept Ferrari as their final joint project.

Alessandro Debenedetti, Emiliano Fiordi, Marco Francesconi, and Pierpaolo Garripoli, from the School of Architectural Technologies and Design, asked their professor at the time, who has since passed away, Professor Roberto Segoni, if they could design and model a Ferrari. To achieve this goal, they wanted to use several design tools and proposed using Autodesk 3ds Max to create the virtual model.

Image: DGFdesign Studio Associato di Architettura e design

The answer was yes, providing they could design a model fit for real production. This meant getting Ferrari’s help in studying the concept for the new model. It was to be not just a question of style. The students’ car needed to be an exquisite blend of exceptional design, mechanical, electronic and aerodynamic engineering, accuracy, and power. In other words, the four young architects had to produce a model of a Ferrari that a customer would want to buy. This was the challenge that Professor Segoni posed to his students.

“From the beginning, we wanted to transfer the DNA of a Formula One car into a car that anyone could buy and drive... provided they could afford it,” says Marco Francesconi, one of the four designers of the Ferrari Aurea (the English translation of Aurea is Golden). “Our point of view is that Ferrari represents tradition and innovation simultaneously. We wanted to create a bridge between past, present, and future in the name of Ferrari.”

“There was a particular model produced in the 1940s, called the Ferrari Barchetta, which we saw as the perfect synthesis between the sports features of a Formula One model and a street car. The side of our first model closely resembled the Barchetta, especially in aerodynamics and the general design. However, we did take other models as our inspiration, models like the Enzo, the 456, and the 360 Modena. We realized that if we wanted to create a feasible, production-ready car, we needed to work closely with Ferrari. So we picked the phone up and called Maranello.”

The engineers at Ferrari were extremely helpful. Amedeo Visconti, Ferrari’s Project Manager, Stefano Carmassi (Fluid Dynamics Manager) and Luca Caldirola (Performance Aerodynamics Engineer) devoted time to help the architectural students in their quest to create a new Ferrari model.

“From the first meeting at the factory,” Francesconi continues, “it was clear that if we wanted to design a real Ferrari, we had to take into account issues that we had never even considered. The law imposes a vast number of regulations defining what is—and isn’t—permitted in a street car. We had technical questions, such as materials to use for parts of the car. These things make the difference between a nice project and a real car. Our initial ideas about the Barchetta were integrated with more modern and realistic elements from the 360 Modena. After much consideration, we created four different versions of the new Aurea: the GT, the Roadster, the Spider, and the Berlinetta.”

After gathering precious technical information from the Ferrari engineers, Marco and his colleagues created early renderings and 1:8 scale models of the Aurea. All the elements were now theoretically in place: the technical details, the engine, the interiors and materials, the style, and the different versions. Now the actual design and 3D work needed to take place.

Image: DGFdesign Studio Associato di Architettura e design

Marco and his fellow students had no doubt about which software to use—Autodesk 3ds Max. “We used 3ds Max software because it’s a tool that we can adapt to our needs, a tool that doesn’t get in the way of the creative process. With 3ds Max we didn’t need to change our process because of software limitations.

“By the time we reached the modelling stage, the focus on the university project had moved to the back of our minds. We were designing a Ferrari fit for the road! We couldn’t talk to the makers of the most desired cars in the world one minute and then have to start all over again. We could not compromise on our creative ideas just because modelling software was simply not professional or powerful enough. This is why we chose 3ds Max software—the flexible, fast, and reliable environment required to produce complex design projects like a Ferrari.

Image: DGFdesign Studio Associato di Architettura e design

“We were talking to state-of-the-art car manufacturers and we needed to work with state-of-the-art software. During a period of three months, we designed the entire model using 3ds Max software, including the interiors, the rims, and the engine space. The photorealism of 3ds Max is especially useful for a project that needs to be this precise and accurate.”

The four architects received top marks for their university project which, after the sad death of Professor Segoni, was supervised by Professor Massimo Ruffilli. The Ferrari Aurea project has received honors and awards from Ferrari experts and the most prestigious international bodies that judge new car models. The young architects are now teaching a Masters course at their alma mater—the University of Florence School of Architectural Technologies and Design.

Three of the four architects, Debenedetti, Francesconi, and Fiordi, have gone on to open an incredibly successful design facility, DGF Design. The Ferrari Aurea may or may not become a reality in the future, depending on Ferrari’s strategic decisions. But the model is there for all car lovers to admire and study. And so is the 3ds Max software.

“The best Ferrari is the one that I have still to build”
Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988)

26 Comments

jeetal

Posted on: 22 October 2007 3:28 pm

can you send me the detail component parts for this model as 3d max images

TheSfid

Posted on: 22 October 2007 9:00 pm

That car looks fast!

anggi

Posted on: 2 November 2007 12:46 pm

is buitiful

Kerserk

Posted on: 3 November 2007 11:23 am

This car looks more than better!))) Ferrari forever

sambis

Posted on: 3 November 2007 12:03 pm

it quiet an impressive design.But how can you assit people who wish to improve their skill in 3dmax. send me a mail @ sambisgbenga@yahoo.com

buggy

Posted on: 4 November 2007 3:45 am

Very nice. I'm curious as to whether they poly modeled the car or used NURBS (e.g. a plugin like PowerNURBS) and what the reasoning was behind their decision?

Jash

Posted on: 8 November 2007 3:22 am

gr8 finish... But the quality of the image is bad... I'm curious to see the original resolution, if possible mail it to 2jashy@gmail.com

achmad afandi

Posted on: 17 November 2007 9:37 pm

wow keereen

kamtig

Posted on: 18 March 2008 1:59 am

very nice job , you have created a dream car of everyone whether anyone can purchase or not but they can print it and decorate their wall. well done......................................

waz mack

Posted on: 30 April 2008 6:29 am

skoda

Evergreen

Posted on: 15 May 2008 11:35 am

kinda nice, but would never eally work.

TheAbaeconBit

Posted on: 30 May 2008 3:27 am

looks like a 360 modena and a Pagani Zonda had sex and this is their love child

Dedy

Posted on: 6 July 2008 11:56 pm

this perfect....how long you make it?

rozairo

Posted on: 5 December 2008 7:01 pm

very nice man..

metalgore666

Posted on: 15 December 2008 2:36 pm

where i can learn how to do it in 3dsmax?im newbies....any guideline to learn step by step to do that?

iklas3d

Posted on: 26 March 2009 12:17 am

wow, i appreciate your patients, awesome stuff, still i jump to touch this quality, something wrong somewhere..for me, it is a nice job, it really encourages... Thanks

wolfman

Posted on: 2 April 2009 9:59 am

Hello,
thanks for this amazing article, Autodesk 3ds Max is an amazing tool indeed. I would also Like to know if they used out of the box NURBS, or Poly-modeling techniques.

Yellamaya

Posted on: 29 August 2009 3:45 pm

Amazing , its fantastic

negat

Posted on: 4 November 2009 5:42 am

i think 3ds max is #1 & maya #2 2 me

St.

Posted on: 30 May 2010 11:10 am

Max still on the lead. Go Max! Go Max!!!

yiannisk

Posted on: 21 July 2010 12:42 am

shape modelling with surface tools is also very powerful and more fitting to max. there is no absolute need to use NURBS in max.. they are after all an ancient relic that never worked right

shapes, patches, polygons, are the way to go in max!

aegit

Posted on: 31 July 2010 10:33 am

3Ds max always is the BEST!!!!!!!

gane

Posted on: 9 August 2010 6:19 pm

Nice work ))

I have never used MAX and there is no need to compare max and maya. Best software is that one that you know to use...

yiannisk

Posted on: 18 August 2010 12:34 pm

uhm where did you get that information that max is not used in games anymore?
3dsmax is still the #1 preference in video game studios with a difference.
It also is good at doing many more things and works very well in collaboration with
many different kinds of software so you will see it in every design environment.

for moving files from package to package you use fbx.
fbx is available for every 3D application, and fbx excels at doing that.
not maya.

max is for pc only,
because the entire art pipeline is on pc only for the majority of studios.
no point making other versions just to say you have other versions.

Renderman can be used by any software. It is an external renderer.
renderman doesn't have a mocap feature. and is NOT part of maya.

3dsmax has a much wider choice of external renderers
and a better previz quality of your assets in its viewports
to help you avoid pointless rendering where possible.

if you meant maya, it just got a dedicated animation tool in its latest version. 2011.
along with a bunch of very old 3dsmax modeling tools.

3dsmax has character studio, and CAT which are both excellent at handling mocap data.
it also has a very flexible fully customizable bone system to generate any rig imaginable.
at the same time via fbx you can use MotionBuilder for all your animation needs.
so there's a lot more choice, on how to work with your animation right there.

i am a fanboi too. but at least i got my facts straight

Ken Pimentel

Posted on: 20 December 2010 2:32 pm

Anyone else using 3ds Max with automotive projects? I'd love to hear from you and promote your work. ken.pimentel AT autodesk.com

re: speedstr
You might check out the Game Developer's magazines nominations for "best art tool". 3ds Max 2010 won this last year and 3ds Max 2011 is nominated for it this year (along with Softimage). Obviously someone uses it in Games or I don't think it would be nominated.

Black_Panther

Posted on: 4 February 2011 1:40 pm

no matter which software you use... it always has its strengths and weaknesses.
I started working with 3ds MAX a few months ago and so far I haven't experienced any problems with it except for the strange viewport bugs with unsupported GPUs, but as a professional user you don't have that problem, because of a workstation with either a Quadro FX or a FireGL GPU which are listed in the certified hardware.
So, you see... 3ds MAX is a pretty stable release as long as you know how to use it, but maya or XSI are great releases, too. It just depends on personal preferences and the industry you work in